By Jan Skutch
A federal prosecutor on Monday
called the case against former Savannah-Chatham police chief Willie Lovett one
of “police corruption …arrogance and … greed.”
“It’s a very simple picture of
a cop that was on the take,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Durham told a
U.S. District Court jury.
The government contends Lovett
and carnival operator Randall Wayne “Red” Roach schemed from 2004 until Sept.
27, 2013, when Lovett abruptly retired, to pay for protection from police while
Roach cheated customers through such games as Razzle Dazzle, where players
could not win.
“Razzle Dazzle is a scam,”
Durham told jurors.
Lovett, 66, is on trial on
charges that he protected an ongoing commercial gambling operation from law
enforcement over 10 years and made false statements to FBI agents during a
subsequent investigation. He remains free on bond.
The case, which is expected to
last about five days, resumes today before Judge William T. Moore Jr. and the
jury.
Defense attorney Joshua Lowther
told the jury Monday that Roach was required to provide security for his
traveling carnival and initially used Savannah-Chatham police Sgt. Gregory
Capers to find officers to provide that security.
Lovett was one of the officers
Capers used, and when Capers left Lovett took his role, Lowther said.
He said payments prosecutors
relied upon for their case were simply payments for security purposes and that
Lovett did not know that Roach was involved in gambling.
Prosecutors contend that
Lovett, first as a police major and later as police chief, would visit Roach
every day during such events as St. Patrick’s Day and that Roach would pay him
$400 a day.
During one sequence, Lovett
visited the operation six times in four days, Durham said.
On the stand Monday, former
Savannah-Chatham undercover police officer Jeffery Ryan testified that during
St. Patrick’s Day 2004, he found Roach’s operation at Bay Street and Martin
Luther King Jr. Boulevard when Lovett in full uniform showed up, threw his body
across the gaming table and said, ‘No, no they’re closed.”
“We were quite surprised,” Ryan
said, describing his reaction was one of “shock and disgust.”
When asked why he had not
responded, Ryan said. “Who would I tell and pretty much he was known for, how
do I say, retribution.”
Other testimony showed that Roach
had a city of Savannah business license for Magin Midway with an address at 501
W. Bay St., which is at MLK Boulevard.
And carnival worker Emerson
Healy, who said he worked for Roach for 20 years, said Roach had paid Lovett a
“patch” on numerous occasions.
He explained the a patch is
paid to a person “who takes care of everything. … Down here it’s usually the
police. You don’t have to worry about nothing.”
Healy conceded on that he had a
criminal record for robberies and assault and had done prison time.
He became a carnival worker in
the later 1980s, he said, explaining he “had some legal problems and had to get
out of town.”
Durham told jurors the activity
was referred to as “squashing the beef” of police interference and said in the
present case it was prompted by Roach’s phone calls to Lovett.
Roach, a 63-year-old carnival
worker from Long County who was named in the same indictment, was sentenced to
15 months in federal prison on Sept. 19. He is expected to be a key government
witness against Lovett.
Also expected to testify for
the government is co-defendant Kenny Amos Blount, 66, of Snellville.
He pleaded guilty Aug. 11 to
his role in the scheme and was sentenced to five years probation.
Lovett was police chief from
2010 until he abruptly retired Sept. 27, 2013, after 40 years as a police
officer in the face of a sexual harassment complaint filed by a department
officer in a move that triggered major shake ups in the department.
A new chief, Joseph “Jack”
Lumpkin, took over last week.
